Oda Nobuna no Yabou – 03

You don’t hear that said often in anime, where the work acknowledges the equality of women. As I’ve said before, I don’t consider labeling myself as a feminist, but one need not be one to appreciate such a fresh statement in what’s often a sexist medium (how sexist is up to debate). Almost every character in this show has exhibited some sort of strength that’s not tacked on. It is integral to their characters, whether it’s Scorekeeper’s order, Katsuie’s restraint, Monkey’s willingness to die, or Nobuna’s Ambition ultimate dream.

The events that triggered their personalities have thuroughly impressed me thus far. Instead of the genderbending being a purely fanservice modification, that aspect of the show is explored in the anime as a true ‘what if’ scenario. What if a female Daimyo came to power? What if we have to marry against our own will? What if the people we love are doomed to be distant from us? All of these questions get explored thuroughly, not just by one or two people, but various parts of the cast. Although Azai (Saiga Mitsuki) is a despicable character, he makes fair points concerning the reality of relationships in the political sphere. In a more realistic and strategic perspective, Yoshiharu could be at most a male concubine for Nobuna, whilst she saves her own hand for political gain. On the other hand, it’s ironic that Azai states that Nobuna must throw away any happiness she has as a woman, for the prime inner reason why Nobuna desires to save her father-in-law is her position as a caring daughter. Yoshiharu’s reasons for following Nobuna follow the same pattern: it’s not because he’s a guy who wants to protect a girl, but rather he’s a visionary from the future who believes in Nobuna’s “dream”.

Despite these powerful words and statements, some of its effectiveness is lost due to what seems to be a bad case of plot armor. At this rate, none of the Daimyos are going to die, nor any of the main characters, and most definitely none of the women. When Yoshiharu was on that raft and Goemon happened to deflect three arrows with her ninja skills…that’s when the armor became most apparent. Although the scenes themselves may be filled with tension, without the knowledge that SOMETHING could go fatally wrong…the tension isn’t at its fullest potential.

While we’re on the topic of tense scenes, I would like to briefly mention the pacing. Personally, I found this to be a non-issue until this episode, during the clash between the Mino rebellion and the Oda forces. Although 20 or more seconds would’ve sufficed, the clash lasted 10 seconds or so. Due to all of the investment in focusing on the buildup, the actual excitement of the event…felt rushed. Although it might be reasonable to attribute this to a low amount of episodes, it’s still an issue that has to be addressed. The conclusions these past few episodes have felt like quick and dirty conclusions to the conflict built 20 minutes before. Hopefully this isn’t a trend for every episode, but if it truly is a one-cour show, it’s a sort of necessary flaw that’ll have to be dealt with, lest the show decide to cover less material.

These flaws shouldn’t hamper too much from enjoying the plot. If you’ve been following this show thus far, expectations for this show have been met, if not exceeded. The fanservice is regulated, the tension is there, and history has been changed. Although veteran Sengoku watchers may find this a bit repetitive, I vouch again to the line said by Scorekeeper: there’s some surprises that make this show different from the rest.

Kichou, the daughter of Saito Dousan, is the actual wife of Oda Nobunaga, after a marriage between the Oda and Mino to quell hostilities. She is more popularly known as Nouhime, the Lady of Mino. The marriage historically happened before the coup by Dousan’s own sons, so her fleeing to safety in the anime is a result of Dousan’s adoption of Nobuna.

Saitou Yoshitatsu, the son who rebelled against Saito Dousan, may or may not actually be adopted like Dousan suggests. The statement has always been a rumor, and the specific reason why Yoshitatsu decided to rebel historically is unclear. However, if the rumors are true, then Yoshitatsu was actually the son of the previous ruler of Mino, Toki Yorinari.

Although Azai Nagamasa, ruler of Oumi, did in fact marry into the Oda clan, it was marriage to Nobunaga’s sister in 1564. There is another switch in the anime time-wise though. Although Azai Nagamasa may have taken up rulership in 1560, the year that the Imagawa forces would invade the Oda province, Azai had no dealings with the Oda until the marriage occured in 1564.

Historically, Oda Nobunaga did send aid to Saito Dousan during the rebellion. However, this ended up as a failure, with Dousan slain and Yoshitatsu as the new leader. Note though that the rebellion occurred in 1556, 4 years before Imagawa would actually invade Mino.

I was hoping this would be more of a harem, but right now that obviously isn’t the case. Nobuna has completely taken the spotlight. Which is a huge disappointment considering how fine all the girls are in this show.

If you’re looking at this show purely for a harem/ fan-service fill experience, I suggest you look elsewhere. The harem aspect in this one is pretty mild in this series, imo. It definitely won’t be the main focus/attraction of the show, that’s for sure.

@Zanibas – Thanks for continuing to cover this, and please continue the spoiler historical references. I think it adds a nice touch to the review. FWIW – I don’t think that the Mino-Oda battle needed to be drawn out much longer. I viewed it as the final step to the serious battle against Imagawa. The entire focus of Ep 03 was that if Nobuna sent aid to Saito, Imagawa would invade a defenseless Oda. Well, Nobuna really did it to save Yoshiharu, but the result is the same. Very much looking forward to next Ep..

With three Eps viewed, this is definitely one of my favorite shows this season, and one I think most people didn’t expect to turn out as well as it has so far. The vast majority of previews I read were “What! Another Sengoku gender swap, time-travel anime! PASS!” Ironically, I have yet to read a preview that states “What! Another futuristic mecha anime with all (or nearly all) female pilots! PASS!” Seems to be more of those around.

Goemon’s stuttering is great as a running joke. I LOL’d at the “So you can do what – 30 characters at most?” line in Ep 01. Great character. Everything I liked in Ep 01 is still there.

Still, there are a few things I would like to see or could be improved. I agree the pacing could be better – particularly towards an episode’s end. I also agree that the endings seem more episodic rather than a step leading towards the next Ep in a story best viewed in whole rather than parts (ex. Fate Zero). It seems we won’t get much character development (or background) other than Nobuna and Yoshiharu. This really needed 24 Eps to be done right. Some extra time could also be alloted to battles as well. Small final complaint: Maybe just me, but I hate music used for comedy situations. Its just bad and the change from previous background music far too garish.

I agree they could use some work in the pacing. Though for the Plot Armor part for the characters would it be fair to compare them to when they historically would have died? Also I think Saru is also starting to realize that his actions are starting to slowly change what he knows about the time period.

historically, Dousan would be dead by now, as well as Nobukatsu (though the renaming is the ‘death’ of his name I suppose). Though those cases may have furthered the plot, the way they get saved is a bit of a stretch.

I was hoping that Saru would have use more game knowledge to bail himself out of this one, rather than Goemon’s ninja moves.
As shown in the previous episode, Saru is not only a Nobunaga’s Ambition nutcase, but played other games like Voyage (iirc thats the english name, correct me if I’m wrong. PS: Loved that game). There should be other games that give detailed geographical information to allow Saru to get out of sticky situations like this instead of what they’ve pulled.

You don’t need to look hard to find works that depict the equality or even superiority of women over men nowadays. Recent anime has been replete with strong female and weak/idiotic/submissive male characters.

All of those shows feature female characters which are equal or even stronger/more competent than their male counterparts.

If anything, I would say there is “reverse sexism” going on nowadays (I realize I use the term incorrectly – sexism is sexism regardless of which gender it is directed at, but whenever the term is commonly used, it it always assumed it is directed towards women). I can count the number of shows nowadays with strong/competent male characters on my fingers.

Instead of generalizing and relying on “common belief”, you could provide some specific examples like I did…or do you believe that “male superiority” is something so intrinsic to anime that you don’t need to prove it even when faced with evidence pointing to the opposite.

Not exactly sure why Darklord got a lot of negative votes – pretty sure someone cheated because he actually states his argument with some support. It’s wrong to argue using the common belief without actual research or scientific study. You can’t use conventions as evidence. What’s widely accepted by the majority is not necessarily scientifically proven.

Although to begin with, sexism is too broad of a topic to argue. You need to define which aspect of sexism exactly the choices of female/male roles contribute to. But then again, what was given was a sound opinion. I just don’t like how it was ridiculed for being a different one with a fallacious statement even though it makes sense.

While I appreciate getting some more decent female characters lately, there is still lots of sexism to go around in most of the show you mention. And if you think a few strong female characters make up for all the tons of stereotypical weak ones, you are very much wrong.

Maybe there is a trend more towards equality now, but we’re still far from reaching that state.

Although I can’t speak for all the shows, since I haven’t seen all of them, I don’t believe any of them have specifically made the effort to point out and antagonize sexism (at least in a female sense). The formula that’s refreshing here is:

Party A does a sexist thing => Female Party B calls out that shit without tiptoeing.

Yes, there are strong female leads and reverse sexism, but that doesn’t change that the industry as a whole is still stereotyped and generates sexism. Dekinai is an obvious example, as well as Dog Days (?), Campione, Ebiten, and Aestetica. Famiglia (though it’s supposed to) also lacks a backboned female lead. Kokoro Connect, due to recent episodes, also wavers on your point (I’m trying to avoid spoilers here). Also: merchandise and fanworks.

But the point of “what kind of sexism” exists wasn’t my point. My point was about the anime directly antagonizing a sexist scenario with a female defender. That honestly is something you don’t see every day.

1) It’s not a fluffy harem (if we’re going to use harem = 1 boy + many girls). At best it’s a harem where the main female lead almost cuts your head off.

2) What’s wrong with looking at the parallels of a historically based anime with actual facts? What part of this post did I stuff historical stuff down your throat anyways? Spoiler tags?

Also, you’re missing the point. Just because I point out the historical connections doesn’t mean that history actually has a female Nobuna, Katsuie, etc. etc. You’re supposed to know that’s the fictional part of the story. There’s no harm in pointing out the historical ties the authors WANT people to notice.

3) If I just watch and enjoy, there wouldn’t be a blog post in the first place :P. I’m enjoying this anime much more because I understand how much they’re messing around with history.

This show just keeps getting better…who wouldn’t thought it would be able to keep up with its momentum 3 episodes in. I’m pleased.

Also, I would like to add that I rather liked the way they consistently portrayed Yoshihari as a hopeless soldier since the real Hideyoshi was said to be one of the worst warriors of his time though he was one of the greatest generals.

There is a very thin difference between commenting one as a sexist and a woman as being bold. We should be clear in mind about the difference between the two. The characters in mentioned here cannot be commented as sexist ones. I enjoy this show thoroughly though.